Bucking Gender Stereotypes

I may very well be the only woman ever to have tried to get a winch mounted on her truck in Bolivia, I'm at least the first gringa. From the way they treat me in the store you'd think I was an invalid, but a wealthy one. Little do they know, I'm much more mentally handicapped in the area of auto mechanics, but could probably carry the winch, shocks, springs, and any other parts that they presume are too heavy for me for miles and miles. And, much to their despair, I'm far from rich. The delightful mental gymnastics of trying to get anything done to your car in the States, is compounded here by the surprisingly-far-from-English translations I have to remember, such as amortiguadores (shocks) and bujeys (I have no idea). And by the fact that the mechanics don't actually sell any of these parts, so you have to buy them somewhere else and take them there, then travel car-less to the shop every day where your car is resting to check on it, cause calling on the phone's just not as fun.

But I'm not complaining, far from it, I'm embracing the gifts God's giving me and teaching me through each of these experiences, and often repeating to myself my new mantra from my appropriately timed devotional on Thursday, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" -Job responding to his wife when she tells him to curse God and die. I write all this to share my thoughts on gender roles in this new culture I'm exploring. Last Saturday, I joked about the princess conference and the wedding being a bit much estrogen for me, and since then the degree of testosterone has far overcompensated.

The level of chivalry here, or is it chauvinism, once incited me to challenge a stranger at a vet function to an arm wrestling match when he tried to tell me what was too heavy for me. Probably not the most culturally sensitive move I've made, but doubtful the least either. The "logic" behind not allowing us to carry things of ~10 pounds, but watching the women carry children of 30+ pounds everywhere, breast-feeding them till kindergarden, is not reconcilable for me. But, as I'm learning, it's sometimes better not to try to use too much logic...

There is a huge discrepancy in the single female to single male missionary ratio in the world. CVM alone has 7 single females on the field and 0 single males. Being one of those statistics usually doesn't even cross my mind. My single missionary friend Juanita, visiting from Cochabamba once, brought up the fact that it would be easier to be married in this venture we've undertaken, and I couldn't really think of why, except maybe that guys wouldn't look at us as greencards to the US, which would be nice. However, this morning sitting under my sink with pieces of caulk, or maybe plaster, falling on my head trying to fix my plumbing I remembered her thoughts, finally agreed, and wished she'd never brought it up.

For the next two weeks I'll be traveling the expanse of Bolivia, the only girl among five male vets. Maybe it's a good thing I learned all those car words so we'll have something to talk about. But mostly, I think I'll go back to playing the female part and baking lots of cookies! In my opinion this is why there are so few single male missionaries, they all die of starvation on the field. This morning alone, trying to buy ham at the deli for these guys was like 6am on Black Friday at the Mall, I was reminded why I stick to carbs.

This is my 100th Post!! I just wanted to say "Thank You!" to everyone who's following this blog or the notes it becomes on Facebook. If you wouldn't mind commenting to let me know you were here, I'd love to know how many of you sometimes read these. Writing for His glory, Lauren